1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card edge connector, and particularly to a high-speed card edge connector which has improved grounding feature to enhance the signal transmitting quality of the connector, and contacts which can perform wiping action on conductive pads of a mother board which the connector mounts on.
2. Description of the Related Art
The needs of today""s electronic industry require higher speed electronic equipment such as computers and the like. Since many of the electrical interconnections within this type of equipment use circuit boards, it is desirable to provide high-speed card edge connectors having a controlled impedance that will essentially match the impedance of the circuit boards. A high-speed connector is one that can pass fast rise time signals without distorting or degrading that rise time. It is desirable, therefore, to control the impedance of the connector to reduce signal reflection caused by changes in impedance in the pathways conducting the digital pulse. Impedance control includes controlled spacing of ground and signal traces and interconnections. With the closer spacing of the conductors, it is also necessary to prevent cross talk between adjacent conductors.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,024,609, issued to Burndy Corporation on Jun. 18, 1991 and 5,820,392, issued to Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd., on Oct. 13, 1998 each disclose a high-speed card edge connector having a housing and first and second types of conductive contacts. The housing defines a plurality of contact receiving chambers each receiving a first and a second types of conductive contacts at respective upper and lower locations, wherein the first and the second types of the conductive contacts are isolated from each other. Due to the locations of the first and the second types of conductive contacts, the connector has an advantage that pitches between two adjacent conductive contacts of a same row are double of that of a connector having the same number of conductive contacts which are arranged in a single row. So the connector disclosed above has a better electronic performance than other connectors. However, the connector disclosed above is relatively higher than the other connectors, which is undesirable for certain applications.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,095,821 and 6,015,299, both issued to Molex Incorporated respectively on Aug. 1, 2000 and Jan. 18, 2000, 5,921,784 and 5,919,049, both issued to Framatome Connectors respectively on Jul. 13, 1999 and Jul. 6, 1999, each disclose a high-speed card edge connector. The connectors disclosed in the above patents each have an insulative housing, a plurality of conductive contacts assembled to the insulative housing, wherein some of the conductive contacts function as grounding members to reduce cross-talk between adjacent signal contacts, thereby improving electronic performances of the connector. The conductive contacts for signal transmitting purpose have a different configuration from the conductive contacts for grounding purpose and contact receiving cavities of the insulative housing have two different configurations to accommodate the conductive contacts of different configurations, respectively. These connectors are complex both in manufacturing and assembly. Further, these connectors are unable to meet the requirement of changing the location of the grounding contacts or the number of the grounding contacts without changing the insulative housing. Also, these connectors do not have shielding means for protecting the signals transmitting therethrough from external magnetic field fluctuations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,631, issued to Burndy Corporation on Jul. 30, 1991, discloses a ground shielded card edge connector having an insulative housing, a plurality of conductive contacts fitted to the insulative housing and a pair of ground shields attaching to opposite side faces of the insulative housing. The ground shields are electrically connected to grounding means on an inserted daughter card via conductive members attached to the grounding means of the daughter card. The conductive members are exposed out of the connector which does not provide ease of assembly of the connector and the daughter card. Hence, an improved electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
A first objective of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector having grounding plates for protecting signals transmitting through conductive contacts thereof; and
A second objective of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector having grounding plates that are electrically connected with some desired conductive contacts to improve electrical performance of the electrical connector.
To fulfill the above objectives, an electrical connector includes an insulative member defining two rows of slanted cavities along a longitudinal direction thereof, two rows of conductive contacts obliquely received in corresponding slanted cavities and two grounding plates, with over-molded insulative inserts, attached to the insulative member and being near the rows of conductive contacts to shield the conductive contacts. Each grounding plate electrically contacts some selected conductive contacts, which are therefore grounding contacts, and is isolated from the other conductive contacts, which are therefore signal contacts. Each grounding plate has a number of enlarged tails for elastically engaging with corresponding plated holes in a mother board which the electrical connector is adapted to be mounted on. A daughter board is able to be inserted to the electrical connector in a direction perpendicular to the mother board. Upon the insertion of the daughter board to the electrical connector, the conductive contacts are forced by the daughter board to slide along the daughter and mother boards in perpendicular directions.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.